First Mini - Comments and Advice Welcome

[Bagombo]

In this thread, I will be painting my first miniature ever.  I have been doing a lot of reading online and watching YouTube videos about painting, so let's see how I do!  My goal here is to describe my process in detail and get whatever comments and advice people have.

 

 

I bought some minis from ebay that were partially painted, stripped them down with some Super Clean, and got one ready for a test paint job. I am basically going to follow the colours for the Aurora Chapter in Games Workshop's “How to Paint Citadel Miniatures” because I liked the look, but I will make him a Salamander. They used a spray gun for steps 2 and 3, which I won't do as I don't have one.  I am going to time myself as well to see how long this all takes.  Here we go!

 

 

Step 1 - Priming

I primed him up with Krylon Fusion, which specifically says it is for plastic.

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8101/8604487030_cdd6c2a23d_b.jpg

 

This seems a little shiny based on some of the other pictures I have seen on here, I don't think it's a big deal though, other than that I will have to go over the black parts again with a more matte paint. I forgot to take a picture of his bolter at this stage (one is coming up in the next step). Also, hopefully I can learn to take some better pictures through this process, I set up a ghetto lightbox, but it doesn't seem to be working very well.

 

Total time for this step: 10 minutes

Running total time: 10 minutes

 

 

Step 2 – Base Coat

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8126/8603385939_49d64bbdf8_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8522/8604486660_fce9c517b8_z.jpg

 

 

I base coated his armour in Games Workshop Waaagh! Flesh. I thinned the paint down with mix of water and Liquitex Flow-Aid (about 6:1 water to flow-aid). I accidentally added WAY too much thinner and tried to get it back with more paint, but don't think I succeeded, the paint was pretty thin. It took three-ish coats to get to the photo above. The base coat itself took about 50 minutes, and I spent 15 minutes painting the black areas (I used Vallejo Model Colour Black) afterwards to dull down the shiny primer and fix my mistakes (there were a lot of mistakes). I used the same thinner mix for the black, but kept it to about 1:1 thinner which may actually have been too thick, I feel like his shoulder pads look a little caked on.

 

To me, this took A LOT of time for just the first base coat on one guy, the thought of spending 20+ hours just applying base coats to two squads of basic marines worries me a bit.

 

Total time for this step: 75 minutes

Running total time: 85 minutes

 

 

Step 3 – Layer

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8261/8603385617_5f390bf734_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8246/8603385447_58fcb0324d_z.jpg

 

I added a layer of Vallejo Game Colour Sick Green to his armour. I thinned this one 1:1 at first and it still felt too thick, so I thinned it out some more (accidentally added a lot again, I need a new bottle for my thinner). After doing this, I'm not sure what value I got out of the first layer of Waaagh! Flesh, and think maybe I should just go straight to this colour in the future. Would love to hear peoples' thoughts on that. This layer was not significantly faster, I feel like I need to find a way to speed this all up. 

 

Total time for this step: 60 minutes

Running total time: 145 minutes

 

 

Step 4 – Shade

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8525/8603385327_b9e603623b_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8393/8604486062_1b28d47cd3_z.jpg

 

I put some GW Coelia Greenshade directly into the crevasses of his armour (I did not thin this), and touched up the places where I put too much with the VGC Sick Green. I am really happy with how this turned out.

 

Total time for this step: 40 minutes

Running total time: 185 minutes

 

So there's three hours of work, which is honestly a little discouraging.  I ran out of time for today, but will try to get more done and post the results tomorrow.  I know it's not much to look at yet, but comments would be great, and I will try to finish this guy tomorrow.

[Brother Chryseth]

Heya! Congrats on starting the hobby. :-)

Don't get discouraged at the time investment in your minis, the effort always shows in the final results. You're doing a great job so far (especially with thinning paints, edging, highlights etc.)

Enjoy the process man, don't rush it. :)

[Lorenzen]

it seems to me like you're concentrating too hard on the "ratios" to be honest.. i only use water to thin my paints (outside of airbrushing and blending etc) and just thin it to where it "feels" right to me (takes very little/no effort for the paint to come off the brush onto the model but is still controlable)

[Punk possum]

Though I'm no expert painter I have been mucking about in this hobby for the last 25ish years and I can honestly say that if my first time efforts had been half as good as yours is so far i would have been very very happy.

Re your concerns about step 3 the way to look at it is, the base coat is the foundation that gives the successive colours their base. If you went straight to the layer (ie missed out stage 2)  the finish would be significantly darker as the underlying colour would be black and as such not reflect as much light through the paint. You can use the foundation/basecoat layer as an intermediate shade by leaving a bit showing round the edges or in the depressions of the mini. As said above dont get too caught up in ratios you will get a feel for it in time.  

But most importantly of all well done, keep on keeping on. What you are doing now might seem time consuming but you will get quicker and already you have a nice crisp marine that you could put on a table top and know it was as good as many forces you will come up against. Lastly remember when its done you wont see the time spent but you will always see the time scrimped on a finish thats not quite as good as you know you could manage if only...

[Bagombo]

Okay, I did finish him up today, so posting the rest here. Thanks for all the replies!  A couple of specific responses first:

 

it seems to me like you're concentrating too hard on the "ratios" to be honest.. i only use water to thin my paints (outside of airbrushing and blending etc) and just thin it to where it "feels" right to me (takes very little/no effort for the paint to come off the brush onto the model but is still controlable)

 

After finishing the model, I agree.   I have stopped counting the drops and started just trying to play with the thinned paint to see if it feels right. I think I am maybe still thinning them too much, but erring on the side of caution.

 

Re your concerns about step 3 the way to look at it is, the base coat is the foundation that gives the successive colours their base. If you went straight to the layer (ie missed out stage 2)  the finish would be significantly darker as the underlying colour would be black and as such not reflect as much light through the paint. You can use the foundation/basecoat layer as an intermediate shade by leaving a bit showing round the edges or in the depressions of the mini. As said above dont get too caught up in ratios you will get a feel for it in time.  

 

That makes sense, thanks!  maybe I should try a model with using just this one colour to see the difference.  

 

And now on to the rest of the model:

 

Step 5 – Highlights

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8531/8607468060_5f001a4e7b_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8538/8607467848_fd5a73acb8_z.jpg

 

I tried to give him some edge highlights using VGC Escorpena Green (thinned as above). One thing I realized is how stark highlights need to be to really pop, so these are fairly muted (although the camera muted them even more, they pop a bit more than this IRL). I also learned that I am REALLY bad at controlling where the tip of the brush goes, so highlighting is something I am going to have to seriously work on, I got paint everywhere but where I wanted it in this step.  I was trying to go a bit faster, and now I think I should have slowed down here more.

Total time for this step: 30 minutes

Running total time: 215 minutes

 

Step 6 – Glaze

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8379/8606363671_ddf827c56f_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8385/8607467446_ddf3f4219f_z.jpg

 

I glazed all the green bits with Lamenter's Yellow (undiluted). This really did make the green pop a lot more, but also left some yellow-y blotches. That is likely more my fault than the glaze, I think I got a little carried away with this stuff.

Okay, now that's the green done, I just have to do everything else without screwing it up! I am going to do all the rest (metals, eyes, purity seal, holster, and highlighting the black parts) in one section without step by step pictures, mainly because I was running out of time and didn't stop to take all the pictures at each little step.

 

Step 7 – Everything Else

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8519/8606363329_36aae8b2f1_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8103/8607474954_2071f3d163_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8119/8606370437_910c175530_b.jpg

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8396/8606361599_5898687e8a.jpg

 

Here is what I did for the rest, in order:

Steel Bits – Base coated with VGC Gunmetal, washed with GW Nuln Oil, highlighted with VGC Chainmail Silver.

Gold Bits – Base coated with GW Balthasar Gold, did a thin layer of VGC Glorious Gold, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, highlighted with VGC Chainmail Silver.

Eyes – Base coated with GW Ceramite White, washed with GW Casandora Yellow. I held my breath on each brush stroke here, I was really worried about screwing up his face, but I'm super happy with how this turned out.

Holster – Base coated with VGC Charred Brown, washed with GW Nuln Oil, layered up with VGC Charred Brown again and then GW Gorthor Brown, then washed with Agrax Earthshade. I would rate the results here as “okay”, and definitely not worth the amount of effort it took to do. I will need to find a new way to paint leather.

Purity Seal Paper – Base coated with VGC Bonewhite, washed with GW Agrax Earthshade, layered with VGC Bonewhite again. I love how this turned out, and it took very little effort.

Purity Seal Wax – Base coated with VGC Scarlett Red, washed with GW Nuln Oil, Highlighted with VGC Bloody Red, washed again with Nuln Oil. My plan was to stop with the highlight, but the Bloody Red seemed to stark, so I gave it another wash and liked the result.

Black Parts – Washed with GW Nuln Oil, highlighted with GW Skavenblight Dinge. Then touched up with VMC black one last time (I did a LOT of touching up the black parts on this model, from now on, I am just going to do it at then end).

Things I learned from this step – reinforced that I am not good at line/edge highlighting, I will need to work on this.  Overall I think I learned that I need to worry less about how the model looks at each step, and more about how it will look overall at the end of the process (i.e. Stop touching up the black each step).  I also learned that the paints "flatten out" a bit as they dry, and don't need to be as worried as I was about the starkness of highlights when I first paint them on.  I was also really worried about starting all of these things for fear of messing up the rest of the paintjob, but in the end, doing these things (other than highlighting the black) were my favourite parts of painting the model.

 

Total time for this step: 130 minutes

Running total time: 355 minutes

 

Final

 

Here is one last shot of him on a base (somehow he picked up a couple of chips which I will have to fix. I don't have any sealer at the moment, but clearly need to go get some!

 

http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8545/8606361523_f8e9913231_b.jpg

 

Overall, I am happy with the way he turned out, but would REALLY like to get miniatures done in less than 6 hours each. Any advice anyone has would be greatly appreciated!  

[Caldaron]

I like the paintjob, clear and fine.

We want more from this guy´s !

[Daemon2027]

Mate he looks really good. Green is not an easy colour to paint and I think you have smashed it. Also the more you paint the quicker you will get as the highlighting ect will become like second nature.ncant wait o see more :D

[Bagombo]

Thanks Caldaron and Demon2027, I really appreciate it!  I am going to try to paint a bunch of marines (I have 24 more that I bought) in batches of maybe five or six to speed up the overall time it takes to do them.  Unfortunately I have a big professional exam coming up on June 1, so between that and work I might not have a lot of time in the next two months.   I will for sure post more as I go, though, it's definitely encouraging to get positive feedback!  No one else in my social circle is really into miniatures, so this board will kind of be my social outlet for painting haha!

[Daemon2027]

I'm the same. None of my friends are into the hobby, I study part time on top of a full time job and just had a baby. Painting and modelling is a slow process for me but I find its more enjoyable then mass factory painting. Keep up the good work dude.

[mactire]

Agree with other posters, really good work also dont worry about the time taken. If you want to speed it up do in batches of 5/6 max anything above that is too much and its hard to see progress, its often taken me a couple of months to finish one pack of 10 SW but as i dont game they give me great satisfaction as its all my own work done to the best of my ability,you can check out my galleries their not Golden Demon but hey

[Lorenzen]

id suggest adding a little more depth to the lenses and a darkening the recesses in the mouth grille, but for a first go its a very solid base. i find it difficult to batch paint and tend to complete one model at a time outside of the most basic few stages.. painting is a slow process but can be incredibly relaxing, enjoyable and rewarding IF you dont over saturate yourself.. doing things in quick succession can make it seem tedious and like a lot of work.. do one model, then work towards finishing 5 men from a squad, then the rest of the squad.. do the interesting bits as a reward for the dull bits.. done 9 tac marines? finish the squad with the sergeant.. done a full squad? do a character.. etc etc.

[S.k.i.t.t.l.e]

Thats a good, solid paintjob. Especially for a first attempt (hell even if this was your 10th guy that'd be good) 6 hours for one is probably what I take, I'm pretty slow too. But I've found I've been a LOT faster with my Tac Squad (Still WIP at the moment) because I've been 'assembly lining' them. I do all the Caliban Green on each guy, all the black parts, etc. Basically you just go through every guy in the unit with whatever colour they're ready for next. It helps if you have a plan for the order you'll be painting things in, armour, armour joints, aquilas, etc. So don't be worrying that you'll be taking 6 for each guy, even at the beginning, once you start painting a bunch together you'll get a nice workflow going. Keep up the good work dude.

[eetdestroyer]

Good stuff man. I see some solid minis in your future.

 

In response to your timing issue, you'll find yourself getting quicker with experience (as well as getting more accurate with your brush technique). As with any new craft it takes time for your body to learn to do what your mind knows it needs to, soon your muscle memory will take care of all of that.

 

Also, batch painting can help you as well. if you go down this route I suggest using a wet pallet;

http://www.artisans-workshop.yolasite.com/the-basics.php

 

Keep it up \m/